With provisions reducing judicial scrutiny of surveillance activities and granting the police the power to obtain subscriber information from internet service providers (ISPs) without a warrant, the bills raised many privacy alarm bells. For example, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and the provincial privacy commissioners collectively sent a letter to Public Safety, one of the bill's sponsoring federal departments, expressing reservations about the proposed legislation.

However, when Parliament dissolved under a non-confidence motion in March 2010, none of the bills had yet made their way through Parliamentary debate. The bills died on the order paper.